The Lions were tomahawked on their first game of the season.

Coming off a 5-6 (3-6 MIAA) record last season, the Lions were handed the first loss of the season by the Bacone College Warriors, 27-24.

“I don’t know if we lost to them or beat ourselves,” said Bill Cooke, head football coach. “I think we beat ourselves.”

One reason why they lost the game is because it was the first week of classes and the team only had 12 practices. Cooke said the NCAA has strict rules on when a team can start practicing and doing two-a-days. He said the team learned a lot from its mistakes.

“I wasn’t used to the game being so fast; I just need to slow the game down in my head and connect with my passes,” said Kokaine Mothershed, senior quarterback.

Cooke said Mothershed is a warrior, “he’s got some rust on him that we’re going to get off of him.”

“He’s our quarterback, and we’ll go to war with Kokaine,” he said.

“He’s going to improve in these next two weeks. He’ll improve probably better than anyone on our football team.”

Mothershed was a safety last season and was quarterback when he played at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M.

After Josh Chapman graduated, Mothershed was one of many choices to replace him.

“I wasn’t surprised with it (becoming quarterback),” Mothershed said.

“Whatever it takes for the team.”

Cooke said freshman kicker, Brad Komen, was hitting all of his marks. He said the team has been trying for the past two years to have the kicker kicking 100 percent of his marks.

Southern’s next game is at 6 p.m. Sept. 13 at the newly refurbished Hughes Stadium.

“It’s absolutely beautiful,” Cooke said. “It’s a much safer environment to participate in.”

He said with the two-week break before the second game against Northeastern State University, the Lions will correct the mistakes of their first game. He said by playing, the team knows what it needs to correct instead of going into a game without knowing what needs to be corrected.

The Lions aren’t concerned with NSU because they have played the team “for a long time.”

Cooke said NSU hasn’t changed much in the last couple of years. He said the Redmen have a new offensive coordinator, and he doesn’t know what to expect out of him.

“If tradition holds, they are very conservative offensively,” Cooke said.

Mothershed said the team has put BC behind them and is correcting the mistakes made in the game. Cooke said once the team corrects the mistakes and starts “firing on all cylinders, we’ll be a good team.”